Well, this blog post will be a story of crazy highs and unnecessarily silly lows.
About 3 years ago…? I heard about this local-ish (to central Indiana at least) metalcore/fantasycore(?) band called The Wise Man’s Fear. Overall, these guys were actually pretty good..
.. and so was happy to add them to the music library and follow on all the socials to ensure I didn’t miss future releases from them and just happily went about my way. Another band, another day. You know the grind and what we offer here, folks. End of post. Enjoy listening.
Well, for this one.. fast forward (or rewind, if you will) to December while I’m visiting with family over the holidays and I asked one my favorite readers in my extended family what was their favorite book was from the year… and she names one book, and then she names another book… which .. gave me pause….
“did you say – The Wise Man’s Fear? – I heard myself ask”
“I did – it’s the second book of an awesome soon to be finished trilogy from Patrick Rothfuss about fantasy and magic and it’s just really good!”
“Did you know there was a metalcore band in Indiana who may have named themselves after the books..?”
“Noooo…that’s weird…”
My brain immediately went into overdrive – The Wise Man’s Fear.. that’s a weird collection of words, there was no way they could have been connected, right?? Or at least, the band paying homage/tribute to this series??
So then I went and dug just a bit more and SURE ENOUGH THEY LOOKED TO BE. Insane! So fun. Exactly the kind of stuff I live for.
So, it was decided. I was going to read these books, get into the world, and then completely revisit the band and all of their albums and hopefully appreciate them even more.
Well, 4 months have now past and I have read every published word on the excellent Kingkiller Chronicle world of Kvothe and what Patrick Rothfuss created. It’s an insane epic. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend it, even if there isn’t a third book to finish their trilogy and most hardcore fans don’t predict there ever will be (feel in a similar company GoT/GGRM fans?), it’s a lovely read and the first book just feels like a warm hug the entire time. So, go do that.
And so, I was SO excited to get back to these albums and re-visit, actually listen to the words/lyrics, dwell over album titles and song names and the like (which i really typically don’t do). And MAN….. what an actual LET DOWN. Like, no similiarites. It’s completely different. And as I dug in further and further than my initial reddit search many months earlier, these guys have built out and developed their own lore which is frankly, pretty epic and awesome in its own … think like, Coheed & Cambria’s whole world that all of their albums are based of, etc. but man, WHAT AN UNEXPECTED LET DOWN at the end of a crazy long several month journey.
So in the end, the band, who I like, brought me via a random conversation to a book series I really really enjoy, and both of those, with just a naming similarity, will exist separately in my mind, and as a part of this blog post in the future. So… back to the music, I guess, yes?
Leave a Comment